


The Limitations of Wax

by GateBreaker



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Falling In Love, Flying, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Prose Poem, Sun God
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 15:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GateBreaker/pseuds/GateBreaker
Summary: And they say:‘In the dark, he glows.’





	1. Icarus

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doing a comic for Drawing class about Icarus (the point is to come up with an alternative ending to a story) and this the script/narration (there isn't any dialogue). Some of the expressions I've found from different sources on the internet throughtout the last few years (I really really really love the story of Icarus and Apollo so I've read a few things).  
> The title comes from a quote by Randall Munroe, “But I’ve never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive.”
> 
> English is not my first language so I apologize for any errors or misspellings.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Boy of stardust and steel

(of broken bones and scorched skin)

Rise with your waxless wings.

And fear not the fall,

For your wings are made of iron.

 

Boy of starlight and starfire,

Of asteroids and comets and constellations

(And how beautiful they are

As they burn and burn and _die_ ).

 

Golden boy of sun kissed wings,

(Tell me what it’s like to conquer)

Fearless boy who touched the gods

(Tell me what it’s like to _burn_ ).

 

Sunlight scalds your skin

And a thousand stars your lungs,

But still you rise above,

(and for one shining moment,

you kissed the clouds,

tasted sun drops on your lips

and stood where only _gods_ dare to tread)

And hold the sky in your outstretched arms

(and the world beneath your winged shoulders).

 

And let not tragedy repeat itself,

On the base of molten wax

(Oh, but Icarus, wasn’t it _worth_ it?

For the chance to taste the sky,

To die with the sun in your eyes?).

 

So Icarus, who dared to love the sun,

(Icarus, of the fearless flight)

taste the sunlight in your mouth,

fire-sweet where it’s caught in your throat.

 

(And Icarus hit the ocean with a crack,

The current wrapped around him, swallowed him,

Deep beneath the waves where the Sun couldn’t reach.

The ocean’s stories belong to no one but herself,

her secrets an uncharted abyss.

But Icarus is the fallen one.

The fated one.

Marked by the sun.

And currents whisper secrets among themselves

hidden in the brine, to those who know what to listen for,

and they say:

‘In the dark, he _glows_.’)

 

Reach towards your love, Apollo,

And grasp the sun god in your hands.

Let the world know

— _the boy who fell flew._

 

 


	2. Apollo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day Icarus fell, Apollo cried.

When his bones were crushed by the waves,

Apollo wept,

Tears of silver and gold.

 

Oh, Apollo, you were celestial,

You belonged among the stars,

With golden eyes and starlight teeth.

A god burning bright, high in the sky.

But Icarus was a boy with starlight eyes,

a smile that held a thousand stars,

And the sun was in love.

 

Oh, Apollo,

You drown yourself in the horizon

And paint the sky in bruises of purple, red and gold,

To learn the painful process

of destroying and resurrecting yourself for your love.

 

Oh, Apollo,

All of this so that one day you can defy Olympus’ rule

of never resurrecting a mortal for Icarus,

the only mortal who ever _dared_

to love you enough to _burn_.

 

(If he ever learns to resurrect mortals

the way he resurrects himself,

Apollo’s favourite sight would always be Icarus rising,

the way he does every morning, whole again from the sea.)

 

Oh, Apollo,

Do you think the stars wept when Icarus fell?

I think they reached out;

I think they tried to catch him

\- and that’s why they shine a little brighter

than they did before.

 

The sea took too much from Apollo

waves had grasped at his lover in a malice hunger,

and drank up every teardrop he sent down

(you can't reach the sun

at the bottom of the sea).

 

The day Icarus fell, Apollo cried,

And the sun no longer shone the same way.

 

 

 

\- _Do not forget the sun is a star too_

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, and if you found any error or misspelling or just want to drop a comment down below, it would make my day.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
